Norah Jones Loves Being Close To Home

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Brooklyn resident Norah Jones stayed close to home last week with the release of her new album. She made the rounds in New York to promote Little Broken Hearts, making stops that included appearances on The Late Show with David Letterman and right here at Fresh 102.7.

And sticking close to home happens to be what Norah likes to do best. She admits to Fresh’s Dylan that playing around her hometown tops any tour she might have coming her way.

“I definitely just enjoy playing music when I’m home and not having to book a huge high pressured tour to just play music so when I’m home, I mean I love living in New York City there’s a ton of places I can go play, I have a lot of friends here so I can just kind of be a normal musician when I’m home, which is nice to try things out.”

She’ll have time to do so, she doesn’t head out on her European outing until later this month. And the smallest place she performs while in New York? Her kitchen. Norah keeps a piano in there.

And speaking of her home, it was while at Fresh 102.7 that she talked about a subject all New Yorkers are very open about – real estate. It seems that after purchasing her brownstone in the Cobble Hill section of Brooklyn in 2009, she ran into a snag with the local neighborhood association when she wanted to add windows where there were none before.

Concerns were raised in the area, saying the idea was out of character for the 19-century structure. And so the back and forth began as it was Norah vs. her new neighbors. But in the end, Norah did get approval to install the windows which had residents wondering if her star power had anything to do with winning the battle. The singer stands firm on the fact that she did get all “necessary approvals.”

“They were just being kind of bratty,” she says. “I didn’t do anything wrong.”

Despite any negative press that might have come about, Norah did have supporters in her neighborhood too. Local real estate blogs such as Brownstoner would host comments like this one from residents when posts about Norah’s upgrades popped up, “It’s only windows folks. Wouldn’t you think windows will look better than a blank brick wall.?? It’s not like it is something completely off the wall, it’s just windows…..”

After Norah’s “windowgate” controversy, a new ruling was passed by the local government on how current and future residents will need to obtain approval for changes to their residence.

The singer will soon be leaving her light filled apartment for her upcoming tour. Once back from Europe, she’ll start her U.S. outing in Indianapolis, IN come June 20th.